Above: To record the vox for this track, we built a makeshift vocal booth in our hallway, using boxes and blankets.
Here’s another preview from my new collection of songs, a departure from my band’s sexy, pumping, high-energy rock ‘n’ roll.
Category Archives: de musica
Un Dimanche: new & different music of mine
All the great songwriters and musicians I’ve ever met say the same thing: make the music because you love to, because you have to.
The main focus of my musical life over the last fifteen years has been our band Nous Non Plus and I’ve been overjoyed by the success we’ve had in performing live and in selling our songs to film and television.
But there’s so much more music that I love and make.
Wagoneers at the Continental Club #honktonking #atx
Sugaroo, the agency that represents my music in film and television, also represents the alt-country americana legends the Wagoneers, who are now in Sunday-evening residence at the Continental Club here in Austin (one of our favorite honkytonks).
Sugaroo’s founder/owner and my very old and dear friend, Michael, was in Texas this weekend for meetings and he and I caught the show last night.
It was pretty amazing: they played their first record (1988, a landmark release that launched alt-country in the U.S.) in its entirety, in sequence, and then played their new as-of-yet unreleased record in its entirety. What a show!
Michael told me that he hopes to see the new disk out sometime in 2014.
In the meantime, here’s their site.
they’re with the band
From the department of “good girls go to heaven and bad girls go to Italy”…
Just had to share this photo, sent by one of my best friends, of the “band wives” on the night of the first of two shows that my band “the Americani” played earlier this month in the village of Cison di Valmarino in the province of Treviso (Veneto).
That’s Tracie P, second from right.
Now do you see why guys like me learn how to play guitar? ;)
he stopped loving her today
If you get the reference in the title, you’re as sad as we are.
If you don’t, you don’t know what you’ve been missing…
Rest in peace, George Jones.
BTW, Beaumont, Texas, where he lived (and not far from where he was born), is just a few towns west of Orange, Texas, where Tracie P grew up.
joy of music (Georgia P in the studio)
My home office is also my recording studio. And when my bandmates are in town and we’re working, writing, and recording, Georgia P LOVES to come visit with us in the studio…
One of the greatest joys of my life is sharing music with our daughter and living in a home filled with melody and rhythm…
Chicken Shit Bingo with Dale Watson, a Parzen family affair
Verena (above, holding Georgia P on her lap) has been in town since Tuesday (we’ve been hanging, cooking, and writing and recording songs together at Baby P studios).
With the weather so beautiful right now in the River City (that’s Austin for all yall who ain’t never been to Texas), we just couldn’t resist a family outing yesterday to Chicken Shit Bingo with Dale Watson at (our favorite honkytonk) Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon.
Dale’s been playing in Austin and touring the world for more than twenty years, but his new album is bringing him into the fold of the mainstream. Check out this NPR interview he did for his new record release.
I’ve loved his music and his shows since Tracie P first turned me on to him the first time I came to Austin (nearly five years ago now!).
We hung out in the shade in the parking lot and Georgia P had a blast checking out the chickens in Ginny’s chicken coop (above) and all the little doggies that folks bring (it’s a bring-your-own-lawn-chair and get a tub of beer affair in the parking lot outside).
Here’s a little taste of what you missed if you weren’t able to make it yesterday…
A song for Prosecco (by a closeted Eagles fan)
Over the weekend, as I was editing the homey video above for the Bele Casel blog, I racked my brain (wine connoisseurs know the origins of this expression!) thinking about what kind of song I should write to accompany my little homemade film.
In the end, I just kept coming back to country, you know, that peaceful easy feeling that Proseccoland gives ya’…
Yeah, yeah, I know… for years, I denied being an Eagles fan. Only my therapist knew…
But a few years after I met Tracie P, a lot of heart-to-heart talks, and a mountain of 8-track tapes later, I realized it was okay to come out of the closet and tell the world: “World, I am an American and I’m an Eagles fan!”
Today, I feel confident enough with my country cred that I can admit it.
So there you have it…
I hope you enjoy the video and the music as much as I enjoyed tracking it yesterday…
Giacosa 99 Barbaresco (classic) white label
Friends might writhe with envy if they knew how much I paid yesterday for a three-bottle lot of 1999 (classic) Barbaresco Giacosa white label.
I bought the bottles at a restaurant here in Proseccoland after I spied them on the list.
As the wine opened up, an initial brightness gave way to darker fruit and bigger tannin. The first bottle, we all agreed, although vibrant and fresh, showed more maturity, while the second had many years ahead of it. The sommelier had assured me that he bought his allocation on release and that it had remained cellared impeccably since. I was surprised by the bottle variation and thrilled, as always, by the wine.
Super fun to be here with my band and our families.
That’s the main dining room at the villa.
Proseccoland shows April 5 & 6 at the Villa Marcello Marinelli (Cison di Valmarino, Treviso)
The “Americani” — above, my cover band from the 1990s — is reuniting to play two shows this week:
Friday and Saturday
April 5 and 6
10 p.m. both nights
FREE SHOW
Villa Marcello Marinelli
Cison di Valmarino
(Province of Treviso)
Google Map
Both nights, we’ll be playing a set of americana covers, from Willie Nelson to Neil Young to Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Buddy Guy.
A ton of my winemaker friends are coming and everyone is welcome to BYOB (there will be some great bottles flowing).
Here’s the story of how it all came together back in the day.
Please come and rock out with us!
Do Bianchi 